ZAGREB WEEKLY ACTIVITY REPORT - MAY 6, 2008

UNCLAS ZAGREB 000358 SENSITIVE SIPDIS C O R R E C T E D COPY CAPTION FOR EUR/SCE, EUR/PPD, EUR/RPM AND EUR/ERA OSD FOR POPOVICH E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV MARR HR SUBJECT: ZAGREB WEEKLY ACTIVITY REPORT - MAY 6, 2008 ¶1. (SBU) CROATIA COMPLETES ACCESSION TALKS WITH NATO: Croatia completed its accession talks with NATO on May 7. This second and final round of membership negotiations focused on the security, legal and financial requirements of the alliance. As Assistant Foreign Minister Pjer Simunovic, who was a member of the GoC delegation, told POLOFF on May 6, the "negotiations" consist only of "NATO telling us what we need to do." Croatia will now prepare a letter of intent with its time frame for implementing the required reforms. State Secretary Bianca Matkovic, who led the Croatian delegation, said Croatia would finalize this time frame by the end of June. Croatia still expects to sign its Accession Protocol on July 9, and hopes that all ratification procedures can be completed in time for it to attend the 2009 NATO summit in spring of 2009 as a full member. (ZTomic) ¶2. (U) CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN MEDICAL TRAINING EXCERCISE HOSTED BY CROATIA: Approximately 400 multi-national exercise participants and support personnel from 15 nations are taking part in a medical-response training at the Divulje Training Base outside Split, Croatia from May 2 through May 15. The 2-week "MEDCEUR 08" exercise is a U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff regional/multilateral excercise sponsored by U.S. European Command and hosted by Croatia, with approximatley one-half of the participants coming from the U.S. Armed Forces, and the other half from fourteen Central and Eastern European countries. The exercise focuses on mass-casualty training scenarios and humanitarian aid in response to crises situations. Trainers from various nations will share their expertise during one week of classroom training followed by three days of field application in a simulated natural-disaster scenario. The MEDCEUR training brings nations together in an effort to save more lives by improving the interoperability of multi-national disaster response, humanitarian and peacekeeping missions. (PMcCabe) ¶3. (U) CROATIAN GOVERNMENT DONATES $320,000 TO BURMESE CYCLONE VICTIMS: The Government of Croatia decided on may 6 to provide 1.5 million kuna (approx. $320,000) in humanitarian aid for the victims of the devastating cyclone in Burma. According to government spokesman Zlatko Mehun, the aid will be sent via the Croatian Red Cross. (ZTomic) Bradtke